| The
enigmatic, erratic and mercurial (clich‚, but absolutely
true) Grateful Dead evolved from Mother McCree's Uptown Jug
Champions to become the Warlocks in 1965. A number of conflicting
reasons for the choice of name have arisen over the years.
The most popular one is that the name was chosen from a randomly
opened copy of the Oxford Companion To Classical Music (others
say a Funk & Wagnells dictionary) the juxtaposition of
words evidently immediately appealing to Garcia and his chums,
who at the time were somewhat chemically stimulated on DMT.
The theory that it came from the Egyptian Book Of The Dead
has been denied by each member of the band. The original line-up
comprised Jerry Garcia (b. Jerome John Garcia, 1 August 1942,
San Francisco, California, USA, d. 9 August 1995, Forest Knolls,
California, USA; lead guitar), Bob Weir (b. Robert Hall, 16
October 1947, San Francisco, California, USA; rhythm guitar),
Phil Lesh (b. Philip Chapman, 15 March 1940, Berkeley, California,
USA; bass), Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (b. 8 September
1945, San Bruno, California, USA. d. 8 March 1973; keyboards)
and Bill Kreutzmann (b. 7 April 1946, Palo Alto, California,
USA; drums). The Grateful Dead have been synonymous with the
San Francisco/Acid Rock scene since its inception in 1965
when they took part in Ken Kesey's Acid Tests. Stanley Owsley
manufactured the then legal LSD and plied the band and their
friends with copious amounts. This hallucinogenic opus was
duly recorded onto tape over a six-month period, and documented
in Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Wolfe
stated that "They were not to be psychedelic dabblers,
painting pretty pictures, but true explorers." |
